1. memory
Chapter 8

2. Studying memory Sequential Process Disk Keyboard Monitor (Storage)
(Encoding)
Disk
(Storage)
Monitor
(Retrieval

3. Studying memory Memory Evidence of memory
Persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information
Evidence of memory
Recalling information
Recognizing it
Relearning it more easily on a later attempt

4. Studying Memory EBBINGHAUS’ RETENTION CURVE
found that the more times he practiced a list of nonsense syllables on day 1, the less time he required to relearn it on day 2.
Speed of relearning is one measure of memory retention
The more you are exposed to information the more likely you are to retain it

5. Studying memory – memory models
Psychologists use memory models to think and communicate about memory.
Information-processing models
Compares human memory to computer operations
Involves three processes: encoding, storage, and retrieval
Connectionism information-processing model
Focuses on multitrack, parallel processing
Views memories as products of interconnected neural networks

7. Studying memory - memory models
Three processing stages in the Atkinson-Shiffrin model
We first record to-be- remembered information as a fleeting sensory memory (info from senses)
From there, we process information into short-term memory, where we encode it through rehearsal
Finally, information moves into long-term memory for later retrieval.

8. Studying memory – encoding memories
Working memory (short term memory)
Involves newer understanding of short-term memory
Focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long- term memory
Is handled by a central executive (Baddeley, 2002)

9. Studying memory – Encoding memories
Dual-track memory system
Explicit memories (declarative memories) of conscious facts and experiences encoded through conscious, effortful processing
Ex: George Washington was the first president of US
Implicit memories (nondeclarative memories) that form through automatic processes and bypass conscious encoding track
Ex: Riding a bike

11. Studying memory - Encoding memories
Automatic processing and implicit memories
Implicit memories include automatic skills and classically conditioned associations.
Information is automatically processed about
Space
Time
Frequency
Ex: What you ate for lunch
Effortful processing and explicit memories
With experience and practice, explicit memories become automatic.
Ex: learning concepts in psychology

13. Studying memory – encoding memory
What is sensory memory?
First stage in forming explicit memories
Immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system
Iconic memory: Picture-image memory
Echoic memory: Sound memory

14. Studying memory – encoding memory
Encoding by meaning
Encoding by images
Encoding by organization

15. Studying memory – encoding memory
Mental pictures (imagery) are a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when combined with semantic encoding
Showing adverse effects of tanning and smoking
in a picture may be more powerful than simply talking about it.

16. Studying memory – storing memory
Short-term memory
Activated memory that holds a few items briefly (such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing) before the information is stored or forgotten
Working memory
Newer understanding of short-term memory that stresses conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual- spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory

17. Capacity varies by age and distractions at time of memory tasks
Short-term memory
George Miller (1956)
Magical Number Seven: People can store about seven bits of information (give or take two)
Baddeley and colleagues (1975)
Without distraction, about seven digits or about six letters or five words
Working memory
Capacity varies by age and distractions at time of memory tasks

18. Studying memory – storing memory
Past research
Whole past is contained in memory—waiting to be relived
Newer findings
Flashback during surgery are new creations of stressed brain
Information is not stored in single, specific spot.
Perception, language, emotions and more require brain networks

19. Studying memory – storing memory
Mnemonics
Imagery is at the heart of many memory aids. Mnemonic techniques use vivid imagery in aiding memory.
Method of Loci
Link Method

20. Studying memory – storing memory
Organizing Information for Encoding
Break down complex information into broad concepts and further subdivide them into categories and subcategories.
Chunking
Hierarchy

21. Studying memory – storing memory
Explicit-Memory System: Hippocampus And Frontal Lobes are dedicated to explicit memory formation
Registers and temporarily holds elements of explicit memories before moving them to other brain regions for long-term storage.
Neural storage of long-term memories is called memory consolidation

22. Studying memory – storing memory
Implicit memory system: Cerebellum and basal ganglia
Cerebellum plays important role in forming and storing memories created by classical conditioning
Memories of physical skills are also implicit memories.
Basal ganglia help form memories for these skills.
Infantile amnesia
Conscious memory of first three years is blank.
Command of language and well-developed hippocampus needed

23. Frontal lobes and hippocampus: explicit memory formation
Cerebellum and basal ganglia: implicit memory formation
Amygdala: emotion-related memory formation

24. Studying memory
Excitement or stress triggers hormone production and provokes amygdala to engage memory.
Emotions often persist with or without conscious awareness.
Emotional arousal causes an outpouring of stress hormones, which lead to activity in the brain’s memory-forming areas.
Flashbulb memories occur via emotion-triggered hormonal changes and rehearsal.

25. Studying memory Synaptic changes Long-term potentiation (LTP)
Increase in a synapse’s firing potential
After LTP, brain will not erase memories
Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory

26. Studying memory - Retrieval cues
Retrieval refers to getting information out of the memory store.
Who are the people on the right?

27. Studying memory - Retrieval
Memories held in storage by web of associations
Retrieval cues serve as anchor points for pathways to memory suspended in this web.
Best retrieval cues come from associations formed at the time a memory is encoded
Priming
Activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory
Priming

28. Studying memory - Retrieval
In recognition, the person must identify an item amongst other choices. (A multiple-choice test requires recognition.)
Name the capital of France.
Brussels
Rome
London
Paris
In recall, the person must retrieve information using effort. (A fill-in-the blank test requires recall.)
The capital of France is ______.

29. Studying memory – retrieval
Memory retrieval cues
Priming
Context-dependent memory
State-dependent memory
Serial position effect

30. Studying memory - Retrieval
PRIMING—AWAKENING
ASSOCIATIONS
Priming allows up to make associations
After seeing or hearing rabbit, we are later more likely to spell the spoken word as h-a-r-e.
Associations unconsciously
activate related associations.
This process is called priming. (Adapted from Bower, 1986.)

32. Studying memory - Retrieval
Context-dependent memory
Involves improved recall of specific information when the context present at encoding and retrieval are the same
Encoding specificity principle
Suggests cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping recall

33. Studying memory - Retrieval
State-dependent memory
Involves tendency to recall events consistent with current good or bad mood (mood- congruent memory)
Mood-congruent memory
Involves tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current good or bad mood
Serial position effect
Involves tendency to recall best the last (recency effect) and first (primacy effect) items in a list

34. Studying memory - Retrieval
Serial Position Effect: When your recall is better for first and last items on a list, but poor for middle items.

35. Studying memory – encoding, capacity, and durati0n
Feature
Sensory
Memory
Working Memory
LTM
Encoding
Copy
Phonemic
Semantic
Capacity
Unlimited
7±2 Chunks
Very Large
Duration
0.25 sec.
20 sec.
Years

36. Studying memory - forgetting
Humans have two distinct memory systems controlled by different parts of the brain.
Forgetting has several causes
Encoding failure
Storage decay
Retrieval failure
Interference
Motivated forgetting

37. We cannot remember what we have not encoded.

38. Studying memory - forgetting
Encoding failure
Age: Encoding lag is linked to age-related memory decline
Attention: Failure to notice or encode contributes to memory failure
Storage decay
Course of forgetting is initially rapid, and then levels off with time
Physical changes in the brain occur as memory forms (memory trace).

40. Studying memory - forgetting
Reason for Failure
Events and memories are not available because these were never acquired.
Memories have been discarded due to stored memory decay.
Insufficient information to access memories make these out of reach.

41. Studying memory - forgetting
Interference
Proactive: Occurs when older memory makes it more difficult to remember new information
Retroactive: Occurs when new learning disrupts memory for older information
If the Spanish (new info) were to interfere with the French (old info) it would be retroactive interference

42. Studying memory - forgetting
Motivated forgetting
Freud: Repressed memories protect self-concept and minimize anxiety.
repression
Today: Attempts to forget are more likely when information is neutral, not emotional.

43. Studying memory - forgetting
WHEN DO WE FORGET?
Forgetting can occur at any memory stage.
As we process information, we filter, alter, or lose much of it.

44. Studying memory - forgetting
Misinformation and imagination effects
Misinformation effect occurs when a memory has been corrupted by misleading information.
Imagination effect occurs when repeatedly imagining fake actions and events can create false memories.

45. Studying memory - forgetting
Source amnesia (source misattribution)
Involves faulty memory for how, when, or where information was learned or imagine
déjà vu
Is sense that “I’ve experienced this before.”
Suggests cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience

46. Studying memory - forgetting
FALSE MEMORIES
False memories feel like real memories and can be persistent but are usually limited to the gist of the event.
False memories are often a result of faulty eyewitness testimony.
Children’s eyewitness recall
Ceci and Bruck
Researchers studied effect of suggestive interviewing techniques.
58 percent of preschoolers produced false stories about one or more unexperienced events.
Children often accurately recall events and actors
Neutral person
Nonleading questions soon after event containing words children can understand

47. Studying memory - forgetting
Repressed or Constructed Memories of Abuse?
The debate between memory researchers and some well-meaning therapists focuses on whether most memories of early childhood abuse are repressed and can be recovered during therapy using “memory work” techniques using leading questions or hypnosis.
What do you think?

48. Those committed to protecting abused children and those committed to protecting wrongly accused adults have agreed on the following:
Sexual abuse happens.
Injustice happens.
Forgetting happens.
Recovered memories are commonplace.
Memories of things happening before age 3 are unreliable.
Memories “recovered” under hypnosis are especially unreliable.
Memories, whether real or false, can be emotionally upsetting.

49. Studying memory – improving memory
SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Retrieve, Review) study technique used in this book incorporates several learning strategies.
Rehearse repeatedly
Make the material meaningful
Activate retrieval cues
Use mnemonic devices
Minimize interference
Sleep more
Test your own knowledge, both to rehearse it and to find out what you do not yet know